A pair of satellite images released by NASA this week show the effects of a historic drought on New Mexico’s largest reservoir, where water levels are at their lowest levels in four decades. READ MORE

U.S. officials estimated this week that the Elephant Butte reservoir in southern New Mexico is holding about 65,057 acre-feet of water, which is only about 3 percent of its capacity of 2.2 million acre-feet, largely as a result of prolonged drought conditions and unusually low spring snowmelt from nearby mountains. From the mid-1980s until 2000 the reservoir was nearly filled to capacity, as illustrated in a 1994 satellite image (top) released by NASA.
(NASA)